"I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have
in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive."
- Nora Ephron

In 1961, as a very young child, I saw a powerful movie called Judgment
at Nuremberg. The film was my first introduction into the horror of the
holocaust, and I watched the movie shortly after learning how many of
my own relatives perished in the Third Reich's "Final Solution" just a
generation earlier. There is an image from that film which stays with me.
A lampshade, constructed from the skin of a slaughtered human.

New York magazine tells the fascinating detective story of how an old
lampshade souvenir made from human skin was found in New Orleans
post-Hurricane Katrina flotsam. After laboratory testing, it was
confirmed with absolute certainty that the leather lampshade tested
positive for human mitochondrial DNA. See:

I write this column today after learning of a New York City restaurant
which prides itself by selling leather goods from the skins of the same
slaughtered cows which are served to diners. The restaurant, Marlow and
Sons, is run by Andrew Tarlow and chef Sean Rembold.

Jonathan Swift once wrote, "You cannot make a silk purse from a sow's
ear. For the Brooklyn restaurant selling leather goods from the skins of
the animals it prepares as food: You cannot prepare tasty cuisine inside
the toilet of bad taste.

I've checked the menu and confirmed that they do have a vegan option.
Olives are listed as an appetizer for just $6. So I wonder. Can they make
a silk purse out of an ear of corn?